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116 Stefan Th. Gries and Anatol Stefanowitsch Table 6. Modifiers in the s-genitive and the of-construction Genitive mod (N=9,892) Of-construction mod (N=11,103) Collexeme Distinctiveness Collexeme Distinctiveness he (1664:0) 0 thing (0:101) 9.17E-29 they (1415:0) 0 war (0:88) 3.82E-25 you (1291:6) 0 life (0:75) 1.58E-21 I (1221:0) 0 time (1:68) 4.62E-18 we (697:0) 2.31E-234 system (2:71) 1.24E-17 she (683:0) 1.50E-229 state (0:50) 1.39E-14 it (790:113) 1.98E-149 work (0:47) 9.47E-14 (781:155) 8.25E-123 force (0:41) 4.38E-12 today (13:0) 5.62E-05 society (1:43) 2.60E-11 mother (19:3) 0.0002 century (0:37) 5.63E-11 BBC (11:0) 0.0003 house (0:34) 3.83E-10 women (11:0) 0.0003 pound (0:33) 7.24E-10 widow (10:0) 0.0005 people (38:122) 8.11E-10 Iraq (22:6) 0.0007 area (0:32) 1.37E-09 Britain (31:14) 0.0026 this (0:32) 1.37E-09 yesterday (11:2) 0.0064 data (0:31) 2.60E-09 Lord (14:4) 0.0081 information (0:31) 2.60E-09 tomorrow (6:0) 0.0109 interest (0:31) 2.60E-09 mum (5:0) 0.0232 that (0:31) 2.60E-09 father (11:4) 0.037 water (0:31) 2.60E-09 boy (4:0) 0.0493 population (0:30) 4.92E-09 IBM (4:0) 0.0493 material (0:27) 3.34E-08 Observer (4:0) 0.0493 scheme (0:27) 3.34E-08 professor (4:0) 0.0493 law (0:26) 6.32E-08 taxpayer (4:0) 0.0493 order (0:25) 1.2E-07 ward: the s-genitive should attract animate modifiers and inanimate heads, and the associations should be reversed for the of-construction. Table 6 shows the distinctive collexemes for the modifier position of the two constructions. Clearly, the prediction is borne out spectacularly. Twenty-two of the top 25 distinctive collexemes for the s-genitive refer to human beings; the pronouns come out at the top, followed by proper names (which we grouped together as a single lemma), followed by kinship terms and metonymic references via organizations (BBC, IBM) orcountries(Iraq, Britain) and other human nouns. Thethreeexceptionsarethetemporalnounstoday, yesterday, andtomorrow (we will return to these immediately). The top 25 distinctive collexemes of the of-construction, in contrast, are mainly made up of abstract nouns and a few concrete inanimate nouns. There are some directly or metonymically hu- Uncorrected proofs - © John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table 7. Heads in the s-genitive and the of-construction Collostructional <strong>analysis</strong> and ‘alternations’ 117 Genitive head (N=10,440) Of-construction head (N=11,982) Collexeme Distinctiveness Collexeme Distinctiveness friend (125:8) 3.08E-32 sort (7:253) 3.12E-59 mother (92:0) 2.32E-31 part (22:252) 8.46E-45 father (79:1) 2.20E-25 kind (10:206) 1.04E-43 life (129:22) 2.05E-23 number (27:218) 2.01E-33 mind (77:5) 3.02E-20 end (8:155) 1.06E-32 letter (80:11) 1.33E-16 amount (1:100) 2.40E-26 wife (50:1) 6.57E-16 type (1:90) 1.18E-23 hand (66:9) 5.69E-14 rest (0:57) 2.89E-16 correspondent (43:1) 1.22E-13 matter (0:44) 1.02E-12 husband (38:0) 2.34E-13 member (18:98) 1.42E-12 parent (45:2) 3.52E-13 edge (1:45) 1.20E-11 mum (37:0) 5.04E-13 form (18:92) 2.24E-11 work (76:17) 2.69E-12 piece (4:55) 2.38E-11 colleague (35:1) 4.60E-11 level (7:63) 4.38E-11 eye (51:7) 4.71E-11 example (1:42) 7.40E-11 job (41:3) 5.08E-11 side (21:96) 7.49E-11 foot (36:2) 2.29E-10 range (5:54) 2.35E-10 sister (29:0) 2.31E-10 area (11:70) 2.74E-10 child (37:3) 8.18E-10 middle (0:35) 2.92E-10 speech (31:1) 8.78E-10 group (7:59) 3.55E-10 party (30:1) 1.83E-09 aspect (1:39) 4.54E-10 way (64:17) 2.08E-09 loss (1:38) 8.30E-10 book (56:13) 3.39E-09 series (2:41) 1.40E-09 place (38:5) 1.11E-08 copy (1:36) 2.77E-09 name (79:29) 1.72E-08 nature (5:49) 3.48E-09 man nouns, but these refer to relatively abstract or unspecific categories (state, society, people, population). However, with respect to the head nouns, the predictions of the linearprecedence accounts are not borne out at all. Table 7 lists the distinctive collexemes. The distinctive collexemes for the s-genitive are again predominantly animate nouns. Most of these refer to humans in relation to other humans, either in the context of kinship (mother, father, wife, husband, etc.),orinthecontext of social or workplace relations (friend, correspondent, colleague). Some inanimate nouns occur on this list; these are body parts (hand, eye, foot, and perhaps mind), nouns referring to events/actions and their results (life, letter, work, speech), and possessions (book, place, andperhapsname). The distinc- Uncorrected proofs - © John Benjamins Publishing Company
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